In Canada, the biggest rival MasterCard Inc. is working to obliterate, according to its local president Brian Lang, isn’t Visa Inc., American Express Co., Interac Association or Bitcoin dealers. It’s cold, hard cash.
 
“The benefit of Interac and Visa for me is that we’re competing towards the same goal of a digitally enabled country,” Lang said in a recent telephone interview. “I actually appreciate that (Interac) is advertising right now not to pay with cash and that there’s a much better way, that you can tap or pop in your card.”
 
Bills and coins, he says, are heavy, dirty and leave no ineluctable trace as they change hands. “Blunt tools,” he calls them. And yet, for all its warts and despite a concerted push for digitization, cash remains the most popular payment method, especially for cheaper-priced items under $10 at the corner store or coffee shop.